Eight owners and their families and three tenants have lived in the Beardsley-Cartwright house since it was built. Builder Charles J. Buell acquired the property and began construction on the house in April 1885.
The first owners, Edward C. and Alice L. Beardsley, took possession in July of 1886. At the time, Beardsley was an officer with the Phelps Well and Windmill Company. He came from a very prominent family in Elkhart, Indiana, which was platted by a Beardsley relative.
The Beardsleys lived in the house only ten months. In April 1887 the McCormick family moved in. William E. McCormick was a traveling agent for the Burlington School Furniture Company. In June of 1888 his 24-year-old wife, Ellen, died in the house of (according to her death certificate) heart disease lasting one day. Three years later, William married Mary Heckman, listed as the housekeeper at 2648, and in 1892, the family moved to the Pacific Northwest.
From 1892 until McCormick sold the house, it was occupied by four tenant families. The last of these tenants was Frank M. Cartwright, who leased the house in 1910. In 1912, Cartwright and his wife Gertrude bought the house. Cartwright ran a livery and tack business out of the barn, catering to the horse owners who stabled their equines in the barn south of 28th Street. At that time, people would ride around Lake of the Isles and the other city lakes in the summer, and take sleighs out on the frozen lakes in winter. Frank died in 1936, Gertrude in 1941. Their children, Dana and Helen Ruth, sold it the next year.
William Stainbank and Arthur and Lillian Leonard were the next owners. The Leonards shared the house with many extended family members, and space must have been quite tight. Catherine B. Bruce acquired it in 1950, and in 1976 she sold it to the Christensen family.
List of Names on the Title for 2648 Emerson Ave. S.
Charles J. Buell, April 1885. Edward C. Beardsley, July 1886. William E. McCormick, April 1887. Frank M. and Gertrude Cartwright, July 1912. Dana Cartwright and Helen Ruth Kinney, August 1941. William Stainbank, August 1942. Arthur W. and Lillian Leonard, July 1944. Catharine B. Bruce, October 1950. Anders and Trilby Christensen, August 1976.